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Proposal

For a Woman’s’ Drop-In Center to Be Located at Christ Church Rochester,

In the Heart of Downtown Rochester, New York

Preliminary Draft

Rev 1.1

For:

The Vestry of Christ Church Rochester, New York,

By1,3:

The Liberation Theology Study Group

Of Rochester, New York

January 20, 2014 – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

(Last Updated Jan 22, 2014)

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Background and Introduction

The Liberation Theology Study Group of Rochester, New York was formed in the early spring of 2013

not only to study the primary and secondary literature of Liberation Theology but also to serve as a

spiritual incubator to facilitate projects in the community motivated by the spirit and purpose of

liberation theology.

The group is a mixture of the religiously affiliated together with atheists, anarchists and community

activists. We include parishioners of Christ Church (Rochester), St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Christ

Church (Pittsford), St. Joseph’s House of Hospitality (Catholic Worker), The Flying Squirrel

Community Space, as well as local filmmakers and photographers. We include the ill, physicians, the

unemployed/underemployed, tenured professors, students, ex-offenders, bankers, homemakers,

those suffering from cognitive/behavioral disorders, psychologists and psychiatrists, engineers and

clergy. The Liberation Theology Study Group was made an official part of the curriculum of the

Rochester Free School in 2013.

In other words, we constitute “the People of God”, and as such we try to envision what the future

church needs to be- NOT by the careful pragmatic positioning of oneself inline with existing trends

of money and power, nor by the continuation of Liberal Progressive activism which treats the poor

as objects for the largess of the prosperous, but by the creation of zones, institutions and

communities in which the poor are the subjects of their own destinies – who voice their own

concerns and control their own fates, rather than being the objects of the desires and management

decisions of the prosperous and powerful.

How this is to be implemented within the context of a Women’s Drop-In Center at Christ Church

Rochester is the subject of this white paper.

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Liberal Christianity So Far

The current way in which Liberal Christianity engages with the disadvantaged in their urban

communities is by means of various soup kitchens and other such charitable operations. These

operations typically consist of three distinct groups: the Board of Directors, the Volunteers, and

finally the Customers. Interestingly, the board consists of fairly wealthy donors, while the volunteers

consist of the reasonably comfortable and upwardly mobile middle class – i.e. the typical parishioner

of the liberal Christian church. And finally the customers are the poor, unemployed or

underemployed, disadvantaged, marginalized, drug and alcohol dependent and mentally ill who

actually live in close proximity to church, unlike the board members or volunteers who live in more

exclusive urban condominiums or affluent suburbs.

It is no mere coincidence that this hierarchical structure is an exact replica of all private institutions

in the United States – church and charities being no exception.

The gap between the affluent board members and the middle class volunteers on the one hand, and

the charity customers on the other hand, is socially wide, impermeable and is structurally enforced.

A recent mini-retreat put on for the “A Meal and More” board and volunteers by long-time

Rochester social gospel practitioners Fr. Jim Callan and Sr. Margie Henninger of Spiritus Christi

offered a forum for the ‘A Meal And More’ board and volunteers to express their feelings about

what they were doing and the people they were serving. The overwhelming sense expressed by

both the board and the volunteers was the palpable social and communication gap between

themselves and their customers, including their discomfort over the state of dress and hygiene of

the customers, as well as the personal experience of the trauma of petty theft experienced,

presumably perpetrated by the customers on the volunteers.

The board was also very gracious and generous in its appreciation for the skills and perseverance of

the volunteers and staff, and as well as being rightfully proud of the number of customers served.

These very same sentiments were expressed by participants in the Liberation Theology Study Group

and in most other casual conversations on the subject in either religious or secular contexts. This

should be of no surprise in that this is the way liberal Christianity, and indeed the liberal secular

political sphere, operates today. So by its own metrics liberal churches report the numbers of poor

being served is increasing, as is the number of women in positions of power in the church, the

economy and politics. The success of liberal Christianity and politics can also be measured by

advances in social equality of sexual minorities, including laws against discrimination, marriage

equality and the open participation as bishops and clergy in the church. The metric of racial equality

also show a progressively improving trend, with the increasing presence of racial minorities,

historically structurally disenfranchised by the national disgrace of slavery and the Indian Wars, now

showing increased membership on Boards of Directors and high-level positions within government

and the military.

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Yet ironically and tragically, and simultaneously with all the above mentioned progress, the gap

between the rich are the poor has never been wider (and in fact is the widest in the industrialized

world), the social safety net built during the New Deal is being dismantled: unemployment benefits

and food subsidies are being reduced, labor has been almost completely dismantled especially in the

private sector, health care and education is the most expensive in the world. Rochester New York,

the home of Frederick Douglass and a major center of the abolitionist movement, is one of the most

racially segregated cities in the country. Financial deregulation of financial markets, banking, public

media and the recent Supreme Court ruling that corporations are individuals and that money is

speech has made the voice of individuals and the underprivileged completely inaudible in the rapidly

diminishing public sphere.

Therefore, for all of its successes, Liberal Christianity and Politics also has failed the 99% in the most

important economic and political ways. Liberation Theology offers a methodology to turn this

around, and this white paper offers a proposal to implement a small scale solution within the

context of the present day Episcopal Diocese of Rochester, at the same time as when the Church is

seeking to envision “the future church.”

Liberalism versus Liberation

Liberalism treats the poor as the object of social action, and the affluent as the subjects/ initiators/

demanders of social action. That is, the affluent have the responsibility to help the poor.

Liberalism invites the affluent to speak for the poor, to be the voice that the disenfranchised lack.

Liberals act as the vanguard, the experts, the techocrats and the managers by which society

identifies the needs of the marginalized and implements how the marginalized are to be managed.

Liberalism identifies with the affluent and not the disadvantaged. Poverty, ignorance and

powerlessness are viewed as objectively abnormal exceptional conditions, like any disease or

technical problem, to be addressed by those in power. Poverty and disenfranchisement are viewed

not as structurally necessary but as exceptions to the rule, as unfortunate unnecessary collateral

damage of an otherwise theoretically perfect system that only needs slight regulatory adjustment,

or alternately, requires more radical deregulation, to totally eliminate all troublesome exceptions

and remainders.

Oddly enough, based on the themes of recent blockbuster films and books in contemporary public

media, it is much easier to publically imagine an apocalyptic end-of-the-world scenario such as

global warming, asteroid collision, nuclear holocaust or even zombie plagues – then it is to envision

even a slight reduction in the gap between the rich and the poor, or gun control or even a fully

public US health system such as the ones that presently exists in Israel, Canada and Europe. The

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complete suppression of ANY practical possibility of public intervention in ANY reduction of disparity

between the 1% and the 99%, or any possibility that the 99% can even be heard within the public

sphere perhaps needs to be considered as the primary basis for the structural inequality,

disempowerment and alienation experienced by the power and disenfranchised. Liberation

Theology proposes that the basis of this structural disenfranchisement is primarily spiritual and

theological in nature.

Liberal Christianity recognizes that “The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them

any time you want. But you will not always have me. “– Mark 14:7. In other words, the poor are

unavoidable, perhaps even divinely sanctioned and theologically necessary. Theologically, this can

be interpreted as “proving” that The Church has higher purposes other than helping the poor.

A liberal Christian will say – “There, but for the Grace of God, go I.” In other words because of God’s

grace one is of the elect, one is “saved” from poverty. Poverty becomes a sign of the lack of divine

grace, the mark of Cain, a divine banishment from the goodness and the love of God.

Liberation Theology turns this perspective completely on its head. Characteristic hallmarks of

Liberation Theology are:

The poor and disenfranchised are made the subjects rather than the objects of social action.

The poor and disenfranchised are given their own voice with which to identify and express

their own needs, desires and concerns.

The poor and disenfranchised must become their own leaders and must have the primary

say in any decision to be done on their account, and not to be the passive, voiceless objects

of Others’ decisions and desires concerning them.

The poor and disenfranchised are the core concern of the Church, as expressed by Jesus

through his sermon on the mount. They are The Treasure of the Church.

Every individual Christian must self-identify with the fate of poor and disenfranchised,

rather than identify with those more affluent then themselves. Only in this way will the

political leverage of the presently voiceless disenfranchised increase enough to make the

concerns of the 99% outweigh those of the 1%.

Liberation theology focuses on the social, economic, administrative and spiritual hidden

structures that unconsciously create disenfranchisement and poverty and deals effectively

with them from a Christian social gospel perspective. Prior examples include the work of Leo

Tolstoy in Russia, Mahatma Gandhi in India and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the USA.

The difference between Liberalism and Liberation is the difference between sympathy and empathy.

The sympathy of liberalism can be compared with finding a person fallen to the bottom of a deep well,

unable escape. The Liberal/sympathetic person looks down upon the fallen from the top of the well and

expresses her sympathy and may throw down food and other aids. On the other hand, the

Liberator/empathetic person goes to the bottom of the well with the fallen victim, and helps that person

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from the same position as the fallen victim, adding their own voice to that of the victim’s and sharing in

the victims fate.

The purpose of adapting Liberation Theological practices within a Church context is NOT to switch the

composition of any church from one social class to another, but rather to increase the size of the

congregation to ALSO INCLUDE AND PROVIDE A VOICE to those who never had a voice of their own

before, in any context. It is insufficient to simply have the existing church SPEAK FOR the voiceless, for

this only, as we already know, structurally reinforces their voicelessness.

This white paper proposes the establishment of a Drop-In Center on the premises of Christ Church

Rochester, to be geared primarily, but not exclusively, towards poor and marginalized women, and to be

explicitly run using the fundamental principles of Liberation Theology, as stated above, as operating

principles.

It is also proposed that this Drop-In Center be the expressed desire of The Church, both as Christ Church,

and the Diocese of Rochester- as a core mission coming out of the very heart of the Church and in

fidelity to, and in fulfillment of, Christ’s teachings- and not as some individual or factional private

enterprise, towards which the Church can easily disavow any commitment, support or responsibility.

Woman’s Drop-In Center: The Proposed Plan

The following details of a proposed Women’s Drop-In Center at Christ Church Rochester was crystalized

after discussions on the subject with Sr. Margie Henninger and Fr. Jim Callan (Grace of God Recovery

House, Spiritus Christi Prison Outreach Ministry, Spiritus Christi Mental Health Clinic), and Grace Doud of

Dimitri House:

1. The proposal is for a Drop-In Center, to be located in the Guild Room of Christ Church

Rochester, focused primarily (but not exclusively) towards the needs and interests of women.

2. It is also proposed that this drop-in center initially happen on Sunday afternoons, after the

Sunday 11 service but before the Sunday evening Compline Service, every Sunday afternoon.

3. It is also proposed the drop-in center gather together a cadre of volunteers. It is suggested that

3 volunteers be present at any time, and that be enough volunteers to covers 4 Sundays a

months – i.e. a minimum of 12 volunteers over 4 Sundays.

4. It is also proposed that this drop-in center become the home for the patrons who frequent the

drop-in center – that is, that the patrons have primary say in any changes or decisions

concerning the drop-in center. It is also proposed that patron’s voices be encouraged and

organized so that they feel that their concerns are being acted upon and that they feel that the

drop-in center is theirs.

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5. It is also proposed that ANY meeting concerning the drop-in center MUST have drop-in center

patrons in attendance and also that they have equal say in ANY decisions. This will put the

operations of the drop-in center compliance with the basic Liberation Theology principle that

the poor and marginalized be allowed to speak with their own voice and be the subjects of their

own fate, and not just the object of decisions and desires of their affluent betters.

6. This implies that the center patrons themselves will decide which days and times are the best

for the center to be open for them. This implies that the patrons themselves will determine

which activities and programs are best suited to their needs. This implies that the patrons

themselves will determine the suitability of volunteers and staff to their needs – i.e. have

personnel decision making power.

7. It is also proposed that the drop-in center cater to the interests and desires of women by

providing programs and services that best meet their needs and interests, as they themselves

will determine. Examples of such programming and services are:

a. Women oriented videos and entertainment (It should be noted that a drop-in center on Sunday afternoons failed at the Dimitri House when St

Joes House of Hospitality started showing football games on Sunday afternoon -–the mostly male

clients of Dimitri House abandoned Dimitri House in favor of the ball game at St. Joes – and Dimitri

House closed their Sunday afternoon operations as a result.)

b. Groups and circles organized and run by the patrons themselves. This would involve

sharing stories and identifying needs that may possibly be met by committee services.

c. Knitting circles, basic aesthetics such as having nails / hair done, etc. (Spiritus Christi has

a “toenail ministry”)

8. It should be recognized that the majority of customers for drop-in centers are mostly men, with

potential female customers being afraid of violence and harassment and thus spend most of

their time alone in their apartments isolated and in fear. Such a women oriented drop-in center,

such as the one we propose, would service this particular population that resides so close to

Christ Church, such as the Cadillac Hotel, the YWCA, etc.

9. It is proposed that the Christ Church and the Diocese use its communications resources to

gather together a core group of at least 12 reliable volunteers.

10. It is also proposed that appropriate training be given to the volunteers. The following training

categories have been identified:

a. The volunteers and any staff will NOT be therapists but PEERS to the customers of the

drop-in center. Therefore the most appropriate training for such a role may be from the

director of adult programs at Compeer – who trains peer candidates using a “tough

love” approach, and who also formerly worked with Rochester Police Department in

their drug and alcohol programs. She also has a private practice.

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b. To minimize the potential for violence and to deal effectively with any violence that may

erupt it has been proposed that we consult with the Gandhi Institute that has specific

anti-violence programs that the volunteers/staff can make use of.

c. The Rochester Psychiatric facility regularly trains their staff on how to handle patients.

We might consider taking advantage of such programs.

d. A key role that the volunteers and staff can play is to connect the needs of the drop-in

center customers with existing public and private programs that are available to meet

their needs. Thus the volunteers and staff can act in the role of advocates and service

coordinators. To do this, the volunteers/ staff need to be trained in those programs and

procedures.

11. It is also proposed that a diocesan communications and planning missioner/ consultant be

brought in from the very beginning to

a. Help clarify and improve our planning process, procedures and practices

b. Help with communications and marketing - within the diocese and with potential

customer outreach

c. Help with outreach and coordination with exiting city, county, state and private services.

Woman’s Drop-In Center: Costs and Requirements

The following items need to be considered as one-time or repeated costs for a Women’s Drop-In Center

at Christ Church Rochester. This cost may be financial, capital or labour:

1. Exclusive use of the Guild room of Christ Church Rochester on every Sunday from approx.

1:00pm till approx. 7pm.

2. Heating and lighting costs during that time.

3. Maintenance, setup and cleanup costs: the Sexton’s pay may need to be increased

commensurate with his added responsibilities.

4. Staff: it may be necessary to take on one or more permanent paid staff in support of the

operations of the Women’s Drop-In Center. A number of people, including Rhonda Nieri and

David Jencek, have already stepped forward to offer themselves either as volunteers or as paid

staff.

5. Initial and ongoing training costs. See section 10 above under “Women’s Drop-In Center: The

Proposed Plan”.

6. There may be a need, which will become more clarified as the customers express their needs

and desires, for some games, cards, magazines or more suitable furniture (used soft couches

rather than the existing hard chairs). Some of these items can be donated; others may need to

be purchased. If items are donated, there may be costs associated with transporting them to

Christ Church.

7. The recurring cost of consumables, such as toilet paper, knitting materials, coffee and snack

items. Some of these items may be donated, either by individuals or by restaurants/ donut

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shopped at the close of business, but some will need to be identified as recurring costs to the

Drop-In Center itself.

8. Existing insurance plans need to be carefully examined for applicability to this new project.

Postscript

See Note 3 below under “Notes and References”.

Notes and References:

1. The “author” of this white paper consists of the Liberation Theology Study Group of Rochester.

Everyone who is actively or intermittently involved in that group has substantially contributed to

points and arguments in this White Paper. Although a list of participants in the study group can

be provided, no individual names are highlighted so as to make clear that this proposal is a work

coming from the pews and the People of God and is not an individual desire. This also eliminates

any distraction if and when personnel assignments and responsibilities need to be made.

2. The term “the People of God” has as one of its sources the Book of Revelations 21:3 “I heard a

loud voice from the throne say, “See! God’s Sh’khinah is with mankind, and he will live with

them. They will be his people, and he himself, God-with-them, will be their God.” From The

Complete Jewish Bible.

3. This document is still under construction. In particular, the author has made heavy use of the

prior work of Slavoj Zizek, Jodi Dean, Gustavo Gutierrez, Paul Farmer and Leonardo and Clodovis

Boff. Initial release of this document was made without appropriate attributions in order to

elicit initial reactions and editorial comment. Unattributed references have been made to the

work of Slavoij Zizek (including “Living in End Times”) and Jodi Dean (“The Communist Horizon”)

as well as the works of Gutierrez and Farmer (“In the Company of the Poor”), the Boffs’

(“Introducing Liberation Theology”), as well as the work of Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

(“Stranger at my Door”), and John Skinner of the Northumbrian Community and the Neo-

Monastic movement. Every effort will be made to correct these omissions in the next edition

January 20h, 2014

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Day